Tech Field Day Coverage
Our delegate panel includes independent writers and thought leaders, and we collect their coverage of the event, Tech Field Day presentations, and sponsoring companies here.
Cost of Perfection
After Mobility Field Day last week, Jim Palmer got to thinking about how wireless professionals approach their networks. He considered what trying to achieve wireless perfection actually costs, when the vast majority of the time connectivity falls short of that goal. He stopped to think if this quest for perfection often misses broader customer requirements and the implications of the return on time invested toward perfection.
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RuneCast presents @ #TFDx VMworld 2018
It’s always a pleasure to have Matt Leib at an event, and we most recently had him attend a Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld presentation from Runecast. He got a deep dive on Runecast analyzer, which is easy to install and connect into vCenter, providing analysis of authorized sources, while still keeping within compliance guidelines.
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RuneCast presents @ #TFDx VMworld 2018
A Story of Three Companies
Jim Palmer wrote up a look at three different companies he saw at Mobiltiy Field Day last week, Arista Networks, Fortinet, and NETSCOUT’s. He looks at how each companies presentation impacted their messaging. From Arista trying to work in their acquisition of Mojo Networks into their broader portfolio, to Fortinet’s improved focus as a wireless company, and NETSCOUT’s divestment of their Handheld Network Test product line almost at the same time they were presenting to the delegates. Overall Jim got a little look at not just these company’s mobility solutions, but into the companies themselves.
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Aruba, leading the charge for wireless security
Scott Lester got to see some of Aruba’s latest AP hardware at Mobility Field Day last week. During the presentation, Aruba made the case why WPA3 was needed after a decade with WPA2, and why they are continuing to push for better standards. Scott also touches on one thing left out of the WPA3 spec, Opportunistic Wireless Encryption. This optional component has major security benefits for anyone connecting to an open AP.
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Aruba, leading the charge for wireless security
Catching Up With NETSCOUT at MFD3, Big News, and “Body Fade” Explained
Lee Badman got to hear from NETSCOUT at Mobility Field Day last week. They announced a number of update to their network diagnostic tools, including updated firmware for the AirCheck G2 and LinkRunner G2, as well as a status update on the AirMagnet product line. He also goes into a deep dive about how to avoid body interference when using the AirCheck G2, which is important when you have Mr. Badman’s clearly sculpted physique.
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Catching Up With NETSCOUT at MFD3, Big News, and “Body Fade” Explained
The Aruba Networks 802.11ax AP-Series
Hendrik Lüth was following Mobility Field Day online, including #MFD3 on Twitter. There he got a look at the 802.11ax-AP-Series by Aruba. In this post, he breaks down the capabilities of these new APs and what the new 802.11ax standard will mean for 5GHz and 2.4GHz radios in these APs.
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The Aruba Networks 802.11ax AP-Series
Figuring Out What Bothers Me About Wi-Fi and “Analytics”
Lee Badman heard about a number of wireless analytics solutions at Mobility Field Day last week. But one thing stuck in his mind. Outside of the merits of any solution over another, the underlying assumption behind many was that an analytics solution was needed because the wireless network is in some way being managed poorly. For Lee, WLAN problems often come from problems in vendor code, not something an admin can really be proactive about. This isn’t to say that these analytics solutions aren’t needed, but Lee wants them put in the proper context of why WLAN problems most often arise.
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Figuring Out What Bothers Me About Wi-Fi and “Analytics”
Au Revoir OpenIO and Welcome Back Juku!
Enrico Signoretti will be attending his first Storage Field Day event in a while. He recently rejoined the independent analyst ranks, and we’re looking forward to seeing him around the table and asking questions with the other delegates. Make sure to check out his post announcing this, and his blog, for more Storage Field Day coverage.
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Au Revoir OpenIO and Welcome Back Juku!
Dell EMC Data Protection for vCloud Director – A Seamless Approach
John Marrone attended Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld US as a first time delegate this year. He heard quite a bit from Dell EMC’s data protection team, and came away impressed. In this post, he digs into what the company presented around vCloud Director and why it’s an intriguing solution for Service Providers.
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Dell EMC Data Protection for vCloud Director – A Seamless Approach
A Matter of Perspective
Tom Hollingsworth considers the importance of perspective, and how the delegates around a table can shape a Tech Field Day presentation. This first came to mind seeing Aviatrix present their Cloud Routing solutions, first at Tech Field Day Extra at Cisco Live US, then at Cloud Field Day. For the networking focused audience at the first event, Aviatrix was interesting, but seemed to largely align how they expected networking to work when moved from the data center to the cloud. For the Cloud Field Day delegates, the networking Aviatrix showed was met with acclaim. Tom further saw this in action from Arista Networks, who presented at Mobility Field Day for the first time, discussing how they were integrating the recently acquired Mojo Networks.
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Cohesity – One Software Platform for Multiple Cloud Use Cases
We were happy to have Dukagjin Maloku join us as a delegate at Cloud Field Day last month. At the event, he got to hear the latest from Cohesity. In this post, he looks at Cohesity’s DataPlatform, and considers some multi-cloud use cases he heard at the event. Overall Dukagjin thinks they have what it takes to be dominant in the secondary storage market, and is definitely a company to watch.
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Cohesity – One Software Platform for Multiple Cloud Use Cases
Barefoot Networks and Fully Programmable Switches
Keith Ward got to hear from Barefoot Networks at Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld. In this post, he shares a video talking with Director of Product Management Roberto Mari, about how the company’s Tofino programmable switch makes programming a network as easy as programming a server.
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Barefoot Networks and Fully Programmable Switches
#MFD3 Day 1 Recap
Scott Lester posted a summery of what he saw at the first day of Mobility Field Day. Mist Systems impressed scott with their AI-driven infrastructure, and the unique way they are able to proactively advise customers about issues. Arista Networks also provided an interesting presentation. The company recently acquired Mojo Networks, and their presentation focused on the marriage of cognitive networking and cloud driven wireless.
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Mist Enhances Machine Learning Capabilities To Improve WLAN Performance, Troubleshooting
Drew Conry-Murray wrote up what Mist Systems presented on at Mobility Field Day this week. He looks at how the company uses a large number of data points per AP to feed information to their AI-driven infrastructure. Key to this is the refinement of Marvis, the company virtual network assistant. The company showed how they are working to allow admins to interact and resolve issues with Marvis using natural language recognition.
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Mist Enhances Machine Learning Capabilities To Improve WLAN Performance, Troubleshooting
Arista Networks/Mojo- It’s Waaay Early
Lee Badman was interested to hear from Arista Networks at Mobility Field Day this week. The company had recently added WLAN to their portfolio with the acquisition of Mojo Networks. The company showed off CloudVision topology running on a Mojo C-130, which offered some interesting visualizations. Lee is interested to see Arista present again, after the Mojo acquisition has completely coalesced.
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Arista Networks/Mojo- It’s Waaay Early
Enterprise-Class Public Cloud
Chris Evans takes a look at what “enterprise-class” cloud computing would look like, which he heard about extensively from Oracle at Cloud Field Day earlier this year. Oracle’s Cloud Infrastructure provides a more managed environment than other public clouds, making it well suited for enterprises that can’t completely rewrite applications. For Chris, there is definitely a market for a cloud provider that doesn’t strictly take a hyperscaler approach.
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Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld 2018 – My First TFD Event
This year John Marrone attended his seventh VMworld. What could have been a routine event was given a breath of fresh air, when John attended some Tech Field Day Extra presentations. It was his first experience as a delegate, and after getting used so some of the particular logistics of being a delegate, had a “awesome time”. Not only were the presentations engaging, John enjoyed talking and networking with his fellow delegates.
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Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld 2018 – My First TFD Event
Storage Field Day – I’ll Be At Storage Field Day 17
Later this month, Dan Frith once again will make the sojourn from Down Under to Silicon Valley for his eighth Storage Field Day. He’ll be hearing from StarWind, Komprise, NGD Systems, and get the latest from Intel’s Optane group. That’s a lot to cover in an event, but if it’s anything like Dan’s previous Storage Field Day experience, he’ll have a number of blog posts with plenty of alacrity and insight.
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Storage Field Day – I’ll Be At Storage Field Day 17
My time at VMworld 2018
Even thought Brandon Graves had to deal with some travel gremlins along the way, he found attending VMworld this year to be a worthwhile experience. One of the highlights was attending a number of Tech Field Day Extra presentations at the event. He got to hear from Dell EMC, Blue Medora, Barefoot Networks, and Netscout over the course of two days. We can’t wait to see his takeaways from those sessions!
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Tech Field Day at VMworld (Las Vegas)
Al Rasheed got his first experience as a delegate while attending Tech Field Day Extra at VMworld. He got to hear from StorageCraft and NetApp at the event. He was impressed not just with his fellow panel of delegates, but by the performance of the presenters as well. He also shares some more Tech Field Day Extra posts from other delegates from the #vCommunity.
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